In fact, it seems that half the time she looked tired and I thought she needed to nap, she was actually hungry. I began to realize that she was tired but not actually going to sleep, and if I gave her food/breast milk, she'd perk right up.
So we've been doing a new experiment. Cupcake is down to two naps, at noon and at 5 pm. If she seems to be tired earlier than that, I try to feed her first. If she's still tired after getting the blood sugar rush, then she's probably having a sleepy day.
It's a curious thing, and probably related to her MCAD. When she's hungry, and her blood sugar goes down, she seems to crash more than other babies. She whine, gets cranky, tired, rubs her eyes, is pretty much insufferable. But once I give her food her entire demeanor changes. She smiles, the color comes back to her face (I hadn't even noticed she was looking pale!), her energy comes back, and her entire demeanor improves. It's such a change, and pretty remarkable.
It makes me wonder how many times I've tried to put her down for naps and she fought them, when she was actually only hungry.
Does your kid need to snack constantly? Could it be FOD related, or is it just common infant behavior? What are easy healthy snack ideas?
